Women care about local knowledge, experiences from ethnomycology. Gender is one of the main variables that influence local knowledge distribution 1. It acts at two levels. The first is a consequence of culturally assigned roles for men and women and is known as gendered knowledge. Obvious examples include childcare and cooking. The second is derived from division of labor as a result of biological differences between men and women. Even while both engage in major activities, gender stratification occurs often linked to specific techniques or species than to participation itself 2. However, most ethnobiological studies do not include gender comparisons. Reviews indicate that this lack of gender consciousness results in three kinds of errors biased research design which causes omission imbalanced analysis resulting in erroneous interpretation and unreliability of sources which can lead to erroneous conclusions 1, 3. However, these papers make no reference to ethnomycological knowledge. While there are hardly any gender studies in ethnomycology, many give data on gender differences Table 1. In contrast to ethnobotanical and ethnozoological knowledge, women are typically involved in all the processes of wild edible mushroom management. Table 1. Ethnomycological studies with gendered data. In this paper we use the gender differences in ethnomycological knowledge to demonstrate that women indeed care about it and value their role in its permanence. To accomplish this, we carried out a bibliographical review concerning local mycological knowledge, paying special attention to data concerning womens knowledge and comparative gender data. Because Mexico is the country where most ethnomycological surveys have been carried out 4, a third of the references come from that region. We complement our analysis with our own field observations. Additionally, we incorporate data derived from a participatory workshop organized by the Universidad Autonoma de Chapingo called the National Mushroom Gatherers Forum Primer Foro Nacional de Hongueros, held in Chapingo, Mexico in August 2. This Forum brought together regional experts on local mycological knowledge hongueros mushroom collectors, researchers, and students. During the workshop, mushroom gatherers discussed their role in their communities and the challenges they face. We extracted information from womens commentaries and provide original quotes in Spanish Additional file 1. The nature of local mycological knowledge. Local mycological knowledge has features that distinguish it from both zoological and botanical knowledge. Most of these arise from fungal biology, ecology, and metabolism. Traditional knowledge related to mushrooms is restricted to its fruit bodies, which represent the sexual stage of their life cycle 5. There are few examples of the traditional use of their vegetative structures like mycelia or sclerotia 6. As a consequence, only a small part of the fungal organism is subject to cultural recognition and use Figure 1. Al regno dei funghi Fungi, Linnaeus 1753, dal latino o miceti, dal greco mykes, appartiene una categoria di organismi, da unicellulari a complessi. A. In contrast, plants and animals are more easily recognized as units as a whole, as well as composed of distinct structures with diverse uses. Because mushrooms have no organ development, they are often used entirely. Even while some parts of the fruit body could be removed because of bad flavor, there is rarely differential part use 7, 8. Cited text. Alexopoulos CJ, Mims CW, Blackwell M 1996. Introductory Mycology. John Wiley and Sons. ISBN 0471522295. Gender is one of the main variables that influence the distribution of local knowledge. We carried out a literature review concerning local mycological knowledge. Adaptation, which induces differentiation between populations in relation to environmental conditions, can initiate divergence. The balance between gene flow and. This limited structural diversity constrains the uses of mushrooms as happens with other simple organisms as non vascular plants, insects, or worms. Figure 1. Women collecting mushrooms and bringing them back for self consumption or sale. A Tsotsil woman with a tricholomatoid fungi coming back to San Juan Chamula, after collecting mushrooms Photo by Marisa Ordaz Velzquez. B Nahua woman cleaning collected fungi Photo by Amaranta Ramrez Terrazo. C Tsotsil woman collecting Ramaria sp. Quercus spp. forest in San Juan Chamula, Chiapas, Mexico Photo by Marisa Ordaz Velzquez. D Kichwa descendants collecting boletes from an open high altitude pine forest in Tungurahua province, Ecuador Photo by J. Paul Gamboa Trujillo. Mushroom production is uneven throughout the year their appearance in temperate forests is restricted to the rain season. Consequently, the limited availability of wild mushrooms alters people behavior and fungi use during the mushroom season 9. Given the fairly random and aggregated distribution of mushrooms, they cannot be accurately mapped from one year to the next. Introductory Mycology Alexopoulos Pdf File' title='Introductory Mycology Alexopoulos Pdf File' />This differs from plant gathering, where the location of organisms is more predictable. Thus, mushroom gathering requires abilities more akin to those of hunters where greater knowledge of the habitat, niche, and morphology of useful fungi is needed in order to improve the gatherers success 1. For mushroom gatherers, locating a particular species becomes more challenging. A fungus plural fungi or funguses is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and molds, as well as the more. Courses/Coursesen/bot/Resources/image1401.jpg' alt='Introductory Mycology Alexopoulos Pdf File' title='Introductory Mycology Alexopoulos Pdf File' />However, they usually forage in fixed paths or forest areas. Foraging strategies are designed to maximize the chance of finding a group of species at a given time of the year. Species with high economic value e. Most of these species are ectomycorrhizal, so they are not currently cultivated and their fruit bodies are scarce. Most cultivated mushrooms are saprobes while some are facultative. Because they are produced in great quantities, their prices are lower 1. Consequently, the procurement of high value mushrooms is highly dependent on local mycological knowledge. In contrast, technical knowledge has been developed on saprobe species. Download Counter Strike 1.6 Steam Warzone. As is the case with plants, mushrooms complex metabolism generates many byproducts. Among these are antibiotics, beta glucanes, psychoactive compounds, and toxins 1. The most striking social effect is that a handful of toxic species generate awareness or even a subjacent fear when mushrooms are eaten. People will act cautiously and even refuse eating new edible mushrooms, while not so if faced with new plant or animal products. Even collectors avoid touching unrecognized species. Furthermore, these are usually grouped together in a residual category like toadstool among English speakers 1. Mayan groups 1. 6, 1. These terms are used to reinforce the cautious attitudes toward species not locally recognized as edible. A unique feature of local mycological knowledge, first characterized by Wasson, is the existence of mycophilic and mycophobic societies 1. This is, entire cultures adopting contrasting emotions toward mushrooms ranging from an intense liking to an extreme aversion. We are not aware of any mayor botanical or animal resource producing a comparable phenomenon. People perceive the kingdoms Animalia and Plantae almost in their entirety, whereas mushrooms are just a small fraction of the Fungi kingdom 5. As a result, plants and animals are traditionally subdivided into life forms 2. At most, in some tropical regions they are divided in those growing on wood and those growing from the soil 2. Thus, attitudes toward mushrooms are generalized, while animal or plant life forms may produce differential feelings within a society. There are between 5. Because both ethnobotanical and ethnozoological knowledge refer to bigger cultural universes, typically nobody possesses all the information but rather there are specialists herbalists, shamans, hunters. Mushrooms collectors around the world tend to have a wider knowledge about mushrooms not specializing in particular uses or life forms. An exception would be mazatec shamans who collect Psilocybe spp. In some places mushroom collectors gain social recognition. In Hungary, people who know the most about mushrooms are called the king of mushrooms 2. Central Mexico are called honguero mushroomer. They are usually people who became interested in wild mushrooms from a very young age and have accumulated practical and profound knowledge through the years When I was only ten my mom taught me, and now my grandchildren know how to gather mushrooms as wellI taught two of my children and four of my grandchildren.